Report on the Beveridge proposals

1943-01-19 1943 1940s 20 pages 2. In spite, however, of the fact that he diagnoses various ills and attributes them to want, it must be realised at once that a great part of the money required for putting his scheme into effect is not devoted to curing want. Sir William is in search of a comprehensi...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Institution:MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
Language:English
English
Published: 19 January 1943
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10796/8D053125-2D0E-4336-B4FE-D1502EC28F46
http://hdl.handle.net/10796/E888891E-2ED3-4EF5-9078-E3662F42DBF1
Description
Summary:1943-01-19 1943 1940s 20 pages 2. In spite, however, of the fact that he diagnoses various ills and attributes them to want, it must be realised at once that a great part of the money required for putting his scheme into effect is not devoted to curing want. Sir William is in search of a comprehensive and unified scheme of social security for the citizens of this country. Provision by the State of complete social security can only be achieved at the expense of personal freedom and by sacrificing the right of an individual to choose what life he wishes to lead and what occupation he should follow. In so far however as it can be achieved, without loss of essential freedom we agree with him in basing it on the fundamental conception of contribution rather than State assistance, though in the working out of his scheme the contribution to be made by the taxpayer increases steadily as the years go by while the contributions to be paid by the insured persons or their employers do not rise. The scheme becomes more and more one for distributing national income by means of taxation rather than a scheme based on the contributions of those who are to receive the benefits. 4. Sir William Beveridge bases his recommendations on three assumptions: Assumption (A) Children's Allowances: Assumption (B) Comprehensive Health and Rehabilitation Services; Assumption (C) the Maintenance of Employment. Employment. 5. Without doubt Assumption (C) is the most vital, and is uppermost in the minds of the people. Unless we are able to maintain a reasonable level of employment it is impossible to contemplate great additions to our expenditure. The whole scheme is one for sharing prosperity and if there is no sufficient prosperity to share it fails. It is clearly impossible accurately to forecast the employment situation after the war as we are as yet unaware, for example, what, if any, international agreements may be come to with regard to trade 200/B/3/2/C216/5/93
Physical Description:TEXT